Tag: industrial marketing strategy

We all know our parents had the best advice. As I baby boomer, I still recite my Father’s favorite axioms: “If you want something done, give it to the busiest people”, “The cheapest insurance you can buy are the best quality tires”, “The will to prepare comes before the will to succeed”…and of course the most time-honored quote of all:

Have you ever watched those TV shows where folks find old, dusty, ugly, items in the attic and then find they are worth thousands after being analyzed by an expert? Turns out the item was right under their nose for years. The recipients of good fortune often talk about the many times they wanted to take the item to the dump or rummage sale. Now, to their surprise, they have an extremely valuable item…still old, dusty and ugly.

You have proposed an aggressive online industrial content marketing plan for your company…yet, nothing has been done.

You notice that your competitors are spending more on online marketing. You notice that your most aggressive competitor has added many calls-to-actions (CTA) on many of their product pages to attract interested prospects. Further, you hear through the grape vine that your competitor has hired an agency to develop high-quality, downloadable content on their website. In fact, you have downloaded much of your competitor’s content using an anonymous name and your heart drops as you see the very kind of content that you have been advocating for years.

Next, you hear from your star salesman that he lost a sale to your competitor. Your salesman tells you, “I thought I had the sale, then my prospect told me they found a better solution on the web” Further, your star says, “They found some great content on the competitor’s website that explained how to install their product and that really made the sale easy for them and a lost the sale for us.”

Your heart drops to, yet, another floor.

The CEO hears the story and asks you to present your industrial content marketing presentation again. The same presentation you presented two years ago that was shelved.

This time you take the advice of one of your best friends, a CEO of a mid-size manufacturer. Your CEO friend says, “Calculate the ROI. It might be potential ROI, but if you back up your proposal with numbers that are real and documented, they will take the hook.”

I recently met with two Presidents in the same week. One was a mid-size manufacturer of machine tools. The other was the owner of a third-generation industrial supplier.

Almost in lock-step they both, passionately, howled, “Tom, our trade shows, cold calls, and e-mails blasts just don’t work as they used to!”

Both went on to admit they are woefully behind when it came to using the web to brand and market their businesses. They both wanted to know if the web could improve lead generation and customer retention…i.e. industrial branding.

Both, wanted to know if there was some recent marketing data on the buying habits of their customers. Frankly, neither executive had any idea of where to begin and wanted some solid marketing data on what others are doing in their sectors in terms of web marketing.

I was aware of two recent studies that would provide guidance and intelligence for these two industrial executives as they re-tooled their respective industrial marketing strategies.

I viewed this opportunity as a teachable moment to instruct both on the value of industrial content marketing. I told both, “Tell you what, I know of two excellent studies and I will publish them on my blog right after New Year’s. I knew both were subscribers to my blog so I instructed them to keep an eye on their inboxes as they will be notified when I publish my post.

First, if you are not serious about retooling your industrial marketing strategy to create sustainable lead generation and top-line growth, you don’t need to bother reading this post or follow up on the valuable links below.

If you are serious about creating top-of-mind experiences for your industrial prospects and sustainable lead-generation, then spend 10 minutes to educate yourself from two of the most reliable resources on the web, Forbes.com and Search Engine Land about the need for industrial content marketing.

For those you that follow me and read my blog, you know that I have been consistent concerning the opportunities for the savvy industrial marketer. The articles below provide further evidence that my customers are on the right track when retooling their online strategy & taking advantage of opportunities in the industrial market:

I have found smart phone apps such as Google News, Feedly, Flipboard & others extremely helpful when it comes to keeping up with industrial marketing strategies & trends. For example, I monitor my favorite blogs & authors with Feedly, Also, apps like Google News, Flipboard can be customized to my exact interests. For me, some of the feeds/categories include “industrial marketing”, “industrial content marketing “. When I discover an article that I want to read or reference at a later date, I save it to www.getpocket.com, one of the handiest tools on the web.

For me, this system is an invaluable time-saver. In fact, this past weekend I caught up while waiting for my wife outside the dressing rooms at Macy’s. Told ya’ it was an invaluable time-saver

While I was at the company I founded, Market Pipeline, I started to notice alarming trends when Google continued to make changes to their algorithm to improve the search experience. These changes would have profound effects on our customers’ industrial marketing strategies.

First, Google was improving the search experience at a daunting pace. My industrial friends & buyers were now relying on Google as “gospel” for all things related to industrial…products, services, specifications, technical data, etc.

It was clear to me that if our Market Pipeline customers did not greet their customers with the information their buyers wanted…then, our customers were missing out on their buyers’ with specific intent, (i.e. A great lead). Our customers were also missing a great opportunity for top-of-mind awareness. (i.e. Industrial branding)

Here’s why your industrial company can build “special privilege” or a “franchise” in your industrial niche pumping up your industrial marketing strategy using the web as your branding megaphone .

First, let’s agree your industrial buyers’ behavior has changed dramatically in the last few years. For information about your products or services they will always check Google first. After all, you checked the web for your next vacation, didn’t you?

If you are like most industrial marketers, your branded sales materials are not there to greet your buyers that have specific intent when searching for your products. They want quality information in a format and time frame of their choosing.

Just this morning I had coffee with a prospective customer and he told me about a particular project they stole from a competitor because their competitor did not have the technical expertise to complete the project to perfection. This prospect’s brand revolves around completing highly technical systems, where many of their competitors do not have the technical expertise.

So, I came back to my office and checked several of the technical keywords phrases associated with the engineered materials and project mentioned above.

Many of you that follow my blog know that I am a big fan of David Meerman Scott. David is a real thought-leader in the age of search, social and mobile. He is also a best-selling author when it comes to marketing, sales and service. David understands the fast changing marketing landscape better than anyone.